"We dominated from the start and could have more goals, then we got them back in the game with the penalty. I couldn't see them scoring otherwise, but it was a penalty.

"In the second half we couldn't live with their tempo but we defended well.

"It was a great game, end-to-end, lots of action and everybody gave everything. And it is nice to come out on top.

"We have been starting games well but not been winning them, but we showed great resilience.

"They are always hard games, Vale gave it everything they have got, threw bodies forward and showed great energy. The big two up front were very good – we had six big guys on the pitch.

"We stuck it out and the crowd got behind us, they were brilliant today.

"It was a great first goal, we have worked very hard on attacking the ball. Marcus's (Haber) got on the end of a Matt Tootle cross – his deliveries were good all day – and George (Ray) did very well to get on the end of it.

"Vadaine (Oliver) has showed what he can do today, it was a great header and that's what I saw when I signed him.

"We needed a catalyst to get us going, I said that to the lads before the game. I told the players to do it the fans, hopefully we can build on it now. We've got a long trip to Yeovil on Tuesday.

"I'll take terrific pride from that and hopefully it is the start of something."